"Observing Report - July 12 2023"

The vagaries of star hopping are pretty much well-known to observers, both less experienced ones and sometimes the "old pros." In this featured report of the day 10538 (Ed) describes everything that challenged him on the night of the 12th - bugs, heat, and a bit of frustration as he started out trying to observe the globular cluster M5 in Serpens.

While that attempt was unsuccessful he quickly re-grouped looking at M51 the Whirpool Galaxy which he was able to see, the duo of M81 and M82 in Ursa Major, with a shoutout to M82 for its distinctive appearance, and then M108 the Surfboard Galaxy which looks like a silver streak not too far from the Owl Nebula.

Moving on he viewed some clusters and nebulae in other parts of the sky including the loose globular M56 in Lyra and of course the ring M57 and concluded a successful evening that had started out with some frustration. Often with star-hopping one gets more proficient as a session goes on. Congratulations Ed on achieving the VROD for the day for your fun and persevering session with the 14" Dob.

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